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Law schools struggle to find a balance between providing students with a more practical education (which usually means smaller, closely supervised "skills" courses) while not saddling students with even more debt by way of a higher tuition bill. From Inside Higher Ed:

Critics of law schools have two main objections: they’re too
expensive and they don’t adequately prepare students to work as lawyers.

New York University is the latest law school to try to address the
second issue. Motivated by the 2008 financial crisis, Dean Richard
Revesz convened a committee of leading lawyers, all NYU Law alumni, to
evaluate the school’s curriculum. The committee found five areas for
improvement, and NYU announced Wednesday new initiatives aimed at better
training (and training better) lawyers.

The curriculum enhancements include a study abroad option during the
third year of law school, a chance to spend a semester in Washington,
D.C., a “pathways” program for third-year students who have a specific
area of law they want to specialize in, an increased focus on business
and financial education, and a leadership development program.

So far, most of the programs are optional, except for a financial
literacy course that will be required of first-year students; Revesz
said the school will evaluate the effectiveness of the various
initiatives and could require them down the road. For now, he expects
that most students will opt to take advantage of at least one.

Most of the new programs are aimed at improving the third year of law
school, a topic that has been particularly controversial in the
discussion of legal education. Since the American Bar Association got
rid of its three-year requirement (it now requires a certain number of
units instead), there has been much talk about just how necessary that
third year really is.

Some law schools have introduced an accelerated option
that allows students to earn a J.D. in five semesters, but those
students still take the same number of courses and pay the same tuition.
Others, like NYU, have tried to revamp the third-year experience, usually by focusing on clinical learning. A survey by the ABA found that between 2002 and 2010, law schools increased all aspects of “skills instruction,” like clinical practice and externships.

“Our feeling was what we should do is make the third year as meaningful as possible,” Revesz said.

The ABA survey also found that 76 percent of curriculum changes were
driven by the evolving demands of the job market. That, Revesz said, is
largely what influenced the development of the new programs at NYU.

But curriculum changes aimed at addressing the tough job market often
fail to address the difficult financial situation of many law students,
and this has some experts on legal education worried.

Kenneth Anderson, a law professor at American University, writes on the blog
“The Volokh Conspiracy” that law school less an investment, as it may
once have been, than a bet. That’s because, he writes, the job market
for lawyers is tough, and the cost of education is high.

“It doesn’t really matter how great the education is if it simply
costs more than its rate of return to a student,” Anderson writes.

Yet, improving education (rather than trying to reduce prices) is the
tack that most law schools, including NYU, have been taking. Barry
Currier, interim consultant on legal education for the ABA, said that
while some schools have frozen tuition, it’s rare to see a school take
steps to actually reduce its costs or the prices it charges students.

“Most schools are focusing on trying to improve education,” he said.
“They’re mindful of cost, but not really trying to reduce cost.”

The price of a legal education is a frequent topic of discussion,
Currier said, but the goal of offering cheaper education often conflicts
with the goal of providing better education, and it seems the latter
typically wins.

That’s not necessarily a bad thing for a school like NYU, Currier said.

“It’s perfectly in line with where NYU sees itself in the market, but
not too many schools are going to be able to do this,” he said.

For Kyle McEntee, executive director of Law School Transparency, that’s the core of the issue.

“For the NYUs, Chicagos, Harvards, and Yales of the world, this might
be the direction they need to take their schools, but the problem
happens when the schools below them start to emulate them,” McEntee
said. “That’s part of the reason the price of education has gone up.”

McEntee thinks programs aimed at improving legal education distract
law schools from the question of cost, which he believes should be the
main issue. He says no school has figured out a way to make education
more efficient and to reduce tuition, and as legal jobs and salaries
dwindle, students are being put in a difficult position.